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  medical board. In 1817 he returned to England with a competent fortune. He took up his residence at 5 Brunswick Square, where he died on 13 June 1851, in his ninety-first year. He was buried in the catacombs of St. Pancras Church, beside his wife, who had died in 1841.

Phillips devoted himself to works of benevolence on a very large scale. Besides dealing liberally with his relatives (he had no children), he for many years made large and miscellaneous purchases of books at the London salerooms, and presented them freely to many public libraries. The majority he sent to Wales, to towns like Hay and Builth, with which he was acquainted, to the literary society at Hereford, and above all to the library of St. David's College, Lampeter, to which he is computed to have presented more than twenty thousand volumes. He established six scholarships, called the Phillips scholarships, at St. David's College, and bequeathed by his will the sum of 7,000l. to found a Phillips professorship in natural science in that institution. In 1847 he founded the Welsh Educational Institution at Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, which has since become one of the two most important public schools in South Wales. Besides an original endowment of 140l. a year, he gave seven thousand books to the library at Llandovery, and left it about 11,000l. in his will. He deserves remembrance as the only Welshman of his day who made large sacrifices in the cause of the education of his countrymen.

There is a bust of Phillips in the library of St. David's College, and a portrait is at Llandovery school.



PHILLIPS, THOMAS (1801–1867), mayor of Newport, Monmouthshire, and lawyer, eldest son of Thomas Phillips of Llanellan House, Monmouthshire, by Ann, eldest daughter of Benjamin James of Llangattock, Crickhowell, Brecknockshire, was born at Llanelly in 1801. From June 1824 till January 1840 he practised as a solicitor at Newport, Monmouthshire, in partnership with Thomas Prothero. On 9 Nov. 1838 he was elected mayor of Newport, and on 4 Nov. 1839 was in charge of the town when (d. 1877) [q. v.], at the head of seven thousand chartists, entered it with the intention of releasing Henry Vincent from gaol. While reading the Riot Act from the Westgate inn he was wounded with slugs in the arm and hip. A company of the 45th regiment then fired on the mob, which was completely routed, seventeen being killed and about thirty wounded. On 9 Dec. Phillips was knighted to mark ‘the high sense the queen entertained of the peculiar merits of Phillips's individual exertions in maintaining her majesty's authority.’ On 26 Feb. 1840 he was voted the freedom of the city of London, and admitted on 7 April.

Phillips was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 10 June 1842, named a queen's counsel on 17 Feb., and a bencher of his inn on 5 May 1865. His principal practice lay in parliamentary committees, and many lawsuits were referred to him for arbitration. In Monmouthshire he acquired coal-mines, and became a large landed proprietor in Wales. While living in the plainest manner, he bestowed large sums in charities. At Court-y-bella, near Newport, he built and maintained schools for the education of the colliers. To him was mainly owing the success of Brecon College. He was well known as an earnest writer on Welsh education, and a champion of the Welsh church, and his volume on Wales, defending the principality from attacks made on it, is a standard work. It was entitled ‘Wales, the Language, Social Condition, Moral Character, and Religious Opinions of the People, considered in their relation to Education, with some account of the provision made for education in other parts of the kingdom,’ 1849. He was an active member of the governing bodies of King's College, London, and the Church Institution, and president of the council of the Society of Arts. In 1848 he became a member of the National Society, and devoted time and labour to the work of national education. He died of paralysis at 77 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London, on 26 May 1867, and was buried at Llanellan. He was not married. He was the author of ‘The Life of James Davies, a Village Schoolmaster,’ 1850; 2nd edit. 1852.



PHILLIPS, WATTS (1825–1874), dramatist and designer, of Irish extraction, was born in November 1825, his christian name being that of his mother's family. His father is vaguely described as ‘in commerce.’ Pos-